Anyone have a baby who had failure to thrive ?

[Elmo311]

Hi,

It's a long post if I was to write it all out, but basically my 18week old hasn't been gaining much weight, I had to really push for her to be seen as the GP kept saying she was fine, she never lost weight but would plateau for 2 weeks or more and then have a small gain.

We are in hospital now, for the last week and she has a feeding tube in. They still aren't sure if it's silent reflux (waiting for test results) or a milk allergy.

She's gaining weight which is good but progress is slow.

If you had / have a baby with this how are they and how was the outcome?

Otherwise she's a very cute and smiley baby. :)

I'm sure gaining weight, even if just a little, would not be classed as a failure to thrive. I wouldn't worry if I was you (easier said than done, I know). Had a professional used the 'failure to thrive' term?

My LO had silent reflux and gained slowly. He's much better now he's on solids. He's completely healthy and developing on track.

Mine was severe IUGR followed by severe failure to thrive [so far under the 0.4th for everything she was off the charts and she went straight into hypo-thermic shock at birth ] Her failure to thrive was severe she lost over 40% of her tiny birthweight and was not expected to live. She did not just not gain weight she lost what little she had. Kids like my daughter are the reason peaditricians like to spot any child who is not thriving as early as possible and give them the extra support they need. Mine was admitted from NNICU straight to the Regional Children's as it was suspected she had a hidden disorder that was preventing her from thriving.

The regional children's did all they could with various specilaist formulas, tests for metabolic disorders and so on. Mostly they tested repeatedly for Silver-Russel as she had some of the facial markers.

It took till she was three months for her to gain a teeny 10g. She did not regain her birthweight till she was six months and it took till her first birthday for her to reach a little over 4.5kg. Her entire preschool was spent so far under the 0.4th they had to use the specialised failure to thrive charts to spot any sign of growth in any direction. She would wear out baby clothes rather than grow out of them.

The fun came later with having a fiesty toddler who was the size of some larger newborns who was walking but for whom I could not find small enough shoes.

Hopefully the hospital will be able to resolve what is behind your daughters difficulties soon.